1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a terminal device for performing a print processing, a method of controlling the terminal device, and a computer product.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a printing process system is widely used in which a plurality of computer terminals are connected to a plurality of printing devices using a network such as a local area network (LAN). Thus, the printing devices are shared to be used among the computer terminals, and each computer terminal can select a printing device through the network.
In such printing process system, various types of printers are used. However, it is impossible to determine whether the printers can perform a desired printing process. For example, whether a destination printer is compatible with a printer driver installed in the computer terminal, or whether a printer is capable of color printing cannot be determined.
Due to this, printing process may be mistakenly carried out by using a printing device that is not compatible with the printing process, resulting in inconvenience to the user. For example, if the destination printer is not compatible with the printer driver installed in the computer terminal, the destination printer prints junk data, resulting in waste of paper and causing disadvantage to the user.
Printing process systems are provided that enable to overcome such inconvenience due to non-availability of destination printer data.
In a printing process system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No H11-212742, each version of a printer language processor of the printing device and the printer driver that is compatible with the printer language processor is confirmed, and based on a result of the confirmation, whether to execute the printing process is determined.
In a data processing method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No 2001-125761, it is possible to automatically set a destination printing device based on printing data, and to search the optimum printer during the series of operation from print command to printing execution, thereby enhancing work efficiency of the user.
In a printer searching system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No 2002-259097, it is possible to easily search a network printer that matches with the desired conditions.
However, the aforementioned inventions include the following drawbacks.
Although the printing system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No H11-212742 is possible to determine whether the printer driver installed in the computer terminal matches with the destination printer, the printing system is not able to get other type of printing data such as whether color printing is possible, or whether double-sided printing is possible. Thus, the printing system cannot obtain data pertaining to printing conditions that are desired by the user.
Moreover, although the printer searching system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No 2002-259097 is possible to search a printing device that satisfies the desired conditions, it is necessary to input each condition before each search and is time consuming.
In the data processing method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No 2001-125761, a list of destination printers is displayed at every printing process, which may cause confusion to some users.
In addition, sometimes users may execute the printing process while accepting to use a destination printer even if all desired printing functions are not realized in the destination printer. For example, if the user desires color printing but the destination printer is only capable of black and white printing, the user may choose to carry out the printing process using the destination printer if black and white printing is acceptable. Such a decision making depends on a type of the image data to be printed or a type of printing function that is not available. Therefore, making such decision is subtle and difficult, and is necessary to be left to judgment of the user.